Stranger Things

[Greg]

Ep02 I'm just not digging it. I especially don't like the bullying storyline. And every character is pretty horrible or clueless and I don't like any of them. The murders are pretty shocking. There is a lot of filler in the show. And one of us is really lost on what is going on in the show. We really might have to go back and watch Season 3.

[thatguy]

Damn damn damn...I thought this was supposed to be the last season. I was hoping for some nice resolution in the "final" episode, but no. There's another season coming. 

--tg

---

Warning: Season 4 was broken into two "releases". the second group was released ~July 1. It was only 2 episodes (I thought more), and each is over 2 hours long. 

Don't expect to binge watch them easily.

--tg

[thatguy]

Tentacles...squelching!

https://boingboing.net/2022/07/11/the-st...istly.html

The Stranger Things closed caption team explains the art of (tentacles undulating moistly)

Thom Dunn
Jul 11, 2022 

If there's one crucial takeaway from the fourth season of Stranger Things, it's that closed captioning is an under-appreciated art form. I mean, just look at this beauty:

New York Magazine tracked down the closed captioning artists behind such incredible descriptions as "tentacles undulating moistly," and ended up having a fascinating conversation with them about their craft, and how audio descriptions can serve different communities: 

Karli: Since we're trying to create something that the deaf community can follow as well as we can as the hearing audience, our final decisions have to be made at the last minute when we have the full version. The deaf and hard-of-hearing community isn't just people who have been deaf from birth; it's also people who have lost their hearing or have partial hearing, so it's important to strike a balance of creating descriptors that describe the sounds but also evoke the emotion, so they can relate to these shows too.
Jeff: Especially on a show like Stranger Things where sound is so integral to the way the story is told. It's not an afterthought. Everything is done with intentionality, with purpose. I think the Duffers are keenly aware, it seems to me, of the tradition they're playing in. They're engaging in the great horror movies, the creature features, right? They know that the slow, steady escalation of a single solitary note can draw the anticipation and dread from that. They know what the value of a stinger is, so for us, it's crucial to have full access to that audio on a show like this, so we can then replicate that faithfully.
Karli: When it comes to a show like ST where you have something so fun and upbeat like when they're riding along in the pizza van, and then all of a sudden, something completely different happens, it's our job that the deaf community can still understand that complete switch of atmosphere and tone. If we aren't doing that, we aren't doing our jobs correctly.

I particularly appreciated their careful deliberation around the word "susurration."

Jeff: There's the scene where Henry/Vecna/001 is creating the Mind Flayer. I remember listening to the sound design and it reminded me a lot of the sound design of Arrival. The atonality is meant to get at an alien harshness, so one of the tags I used — and I chose this word because Karli and I wanted to go big; we wanted to bring our A-game — was "[unearthly susurration]". I chose "susurration" because it's an alien word that automatically makes you go, Oh, this is unusual, strange, and eerie.But also, I liked the fictive sense of it, like when you say "susurration," it feels like it's scraping the inside of your ears. Karli thought it was great but said, "Let's have 'unearthly' do the heavy lifting here. This is a bit much." And she was dead right!

It's worth reading the whole interview, even if you're not a Stranger Things fan.

--tg

[Greg]

Season 5.

I don't know when I lost interest in this show. Might have been with Sean Astin. Might have been a few episodes into season 4. Anyway, took the plunge and started with the first episode of Season 5. I'm guessing a shit ton has happened. The town is under lockdown. The center of town is completely off limits and guarded by the military. Eleven and the sheriff and Winona Ryder are training for something. There are journeys back and forth to the Upside-Down.The gang of kids is trying to capture or destroy Vecna. So the usual.

The main reason I tuned back in was because was someone was questioning whether people in the 1980s really wore their shorts over their sweatpants. They did and they do in the show

[Drunk Monk]

I don't know when I lost interest in this show. 

I bailed after S1. I dunno why. Just didn't feel like belaboring the point.

[King Bob]

Same here. I felt like they had played out the concept pretty well, so no reason to go on. Plus the kids are all adults now so a totally different feel.

[King Bob]

Freddie deBoer has a long and funny list of things he hates about this season. The first part of his essay is about the death of criticism that actually criticizes instead of just celebrating. You can skip that to get to him ripping on ST.

[thatguy]

Watched over the break, including the finale on NYE. Tying up loose ends, lots of nostalgia for the 80’s, but also for the show itself, the kids that the actors were at the beginning. I think they Harry Potter phenomenon was in the minds of the show’s creators at this point and they wanted to respect the characters, and the audience’s investment in them. A lot of reflecting, a lot of crying. So much crying. Winona is a terrible actress. Im not particularly fond of Millie Bobbi Brown, either. Since Lucas’ sister who they utilized as the “little kid that was smarter than you give credit” had all ready grown up a lot by this season, I think they leveraged Mike and Nancy’s little sister Holly for that purpose, but she also was a bit of an over-actor.

The very end wrap up had some sweet moments and it was decent payoff if you’ve been riding this train from the start.

—tg

[Greg]

Since everyone was talking about how powerful this last season of Stranger Thing was, we decided to wade back in without having seen the previous two season.

Meh. It felt like a chore to get through. At the end of the day, maybe we were a bit too old to wallow in the nostalgia the Duffer Brothers pedaled. Plus, it felt every two minutes someone had to stop and have a long talk with someone else. So much crying. So much yelling. And all the High Schoolers seemed like they were in their late 20s. Winona's ax needs a good sharpening.

They spent a lot of money on these shows. Lots of big sets. Plenty of expensive effects.

One of the weaknesses was you know who the bad guy is. He's Venkna. There isn't a lot of mystery.

Glad I don't have to go back and watch the other seasons.

[King Bob]

I gave up after season one. It had a reasonable endpoint, and I thought it was stupid to go on.

[Drunk Monk]